@jacek

Every day, I wake up and get to do Degen as my actual job. Not a 9-5. Not some desk job I’m counting the hours to escape from. I get to wake up, open the chats, open the timeline, open the trenches, and spend my day with an online community of people who, in some strange and very real way, have become a massive part of my life. I love trading. I love Degen culture. I love the jokes, the conviction, the debates, the constant push to figure out what this thing can become. And I’m extremely grateful that this is what I get to do. Reading Shoe Dog made me think a lot about this. Phil Knight talks about finding a crazy, improbable dream that feels worthy, fun, and somehow like the thing you were meant to chase. That’s how Degen feels to me. It’s not always easy. Most days are not some highlight reel. A lot of it is stress, pressure, doubt, mistakes, bear market gloom, and trying to keep pushing when the market gives you every reason not to. But there is still nothing else I’d rather be doing. I always remember that people are holding this thing. $DEGEN is not just a chart to people. It represents something. Every day, millions of dollars move through it. People log on and buy, sell, trade, hold, argue about it, believe in it. Somehow, the market has come to a consensus that this thing is worth tens of millions of dollars, and the holders are here because they believe it can be worth far more. I still can’t really fathom that. Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought that I, some random guy in Poland working a boring fintech job, would create something that resonated with this many people. To this day, I can’t fully put my finger on what that thing is. But we all know it’s there. That’s why we’re still here. That’s why we hang out on Telegram, Farcaster, and X. That’s why we trade it, talk about it, meme it, debate it, and keep trying to level it up. I also think a lot about @nick and @yekim, who took a leap of faith and backed me to the tune of $1M. They believed in me and in Degen when it mattered, and they’ve continued to back us through the highs and the lows. The day Nick told me they were investing was one of the biggest days of my life. I was alone in my room. I literally fell to my knees, and even though I’m not a very religious person, I thanked God. That moment changed everything for me. Since then, I’ve been putting everything I have into this. Sometimes more than everything, to the point of exhaustion. And I still always wish I could do more. Push harder. Move faster. Get Degen higher, not just for myself, but for them, for the community, and for everyone who believed before it was obvious. For that reason, and for many others, I will never leave Degen. I’m here until its last breath, or until we reach Valhalla. The last two and a half years have been incredible, but they’ve also taught me that building a business is not always fast or easy. Shoe Dog reminded me that the road can be messy for a long time. Years, not weeks. Years, not a few perfect months. Of course, I want things to happen faster. I want us to win now. I want Degen to be the biggest token on Base, and I want Base to become the biggest blockchain in crypto. I want that for selfish reasons, sure. But I also want it for reasons much bigger than myself. For the people in the chats. For the good people. For people like Mike, Nick, and so many others in this community who want crypto to do good, who want to have fun, who want to bring consumers in, who want to build something different, and who still believe in the idea that crypto can give people more freedom. It’s a crazy concept when I really think about it. I don’t know if YC or a16z would have ever given me a dollar. I’m not from some posh school. On paper, I’m not some obvious extraordinary founder. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe they don’t care about those things as much as I think they do. But what I do know is that on a random corner of the internet, on @farcaster, a community decided that this thing I created was THE thing. It was so special that everyone wanted it. It was so special that people fought hand and fist for it when it first came out. Somewhere along the way, we lost a bit of that feeling. Not all of it. It’s still here. But I forget sometimes, and I think this year has been about remembering it, rebuilding around it, and bringing that energy back. So really, all this is to say thank you. Thank you to everyone who still believes. In the day to day grey gloom of a bear market, it’s easy to see everything negatively. It’s easy to forget how crazy and special this all is. But then I remember where I am, what we’re building, and how lucky I am to be here with all of you. That’s why I don’t give up. That’s why I keep fighting. And that’s why I’ll keep pushing to make Degen the #1 token and community on Base. Cheers everyone. To a great 2026. We’ve got a lot of work to do. 🎩

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